ExOilfield Resource

From Petrophysicist to Real Estate Investor & Agent

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Ana Peternell joins the podcast to discuss her transition from a 17-year career as a Petrophysicist expert to full-time real estate investor and agent as the leader of Peternell Property Group in the Houston, TX metro.

 

“Regardless of how awesome my oil and gas career was... I never received a thank you.

 And now (in Real Estate) I receive ‘Thank You’s every day.”

If you have any questions regarding Houston area real estate - investments, residential, or commercial. Ana is happy to discuss on these platforms.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ana-peternell-903a8656/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PeternellProperties/

Email: [email protected]

Mobile: 832-913-9624

Ana began her professional career at Schlumberger after graduating with her B.S. and M.S. in Control Engineering in Mexico. Working at Schlumberger as a Petrophysicist Champion and Formation Evaluation tool specialist was rewarding and lucrative. It allowed Ana to do what she loved, being a specialist and having a deep understanding of controls and tools to help clients gather data and make the best decisions.

Ana came to the United States in 2006. She bought her first 2 U.S. properties in ‘06 & ‘07 but was not satisfied with service she received when buying these. She became curious about real estate and the transactions and liked that REAL ESTATE IS A GAME. It's a negotiation game. It's a transaction game. Ana Got hooked on the process of buying, renting, building equity, and selling. She describes her strategy as “buy & hold” investments with her business partner.

In 2015, Ana prepared to go full time into real estate as the oil and gas commodity prices tumbled. This would be her “plan A” if she was impacted by layoffs, and sure enough it happened in 2016 and her new career going all in on real estate began.

It's easy to think that oil and gas is so different from real estate or building construction... but Ana reminded me that it really isn't. Both industries involve multi-disciplinary teams managing large capital projects and seeking returns for investors. As the U.S. leader of LWD tools & Petrophysics, she was always on a team: research, technicians, engineering, field workers, clients, data services. Many of these skills carry over into real estate.

Learnings from Ana's first (residential) real estate deal...

  1. When you find a "good deal".
  • You must first question... why is this such a "good deal"
  • Real estate can be an emotional transaction. Don't be emotional in your decision - VERY IMPORTANT. Use the data from due diligence to make your decisions.
  • Why is this a “good deal”? do your due diligence. Examples: Are there problems with the location? Floodplain? Numbers can be misleading (vacancy rate, rents, repairs, improvements needed, etc)

    • Mistake Ana learned from her experience

    Using leverage (the money of others) to buy real estate (versus all cash)

    1. Paid all cash on her first US real estate deal. This is a common Mexican cultural trait because there’s a lot of pride in paying in cash.
  • In the US, most home buyers use credit score and debt for houses to leverage a small amount of "down payment" and debt to buy your house.
  • It was important to use other people’s money to fund her projects moving forward

    • When investors or homebuyers reach out to Ana:

    1. She says... let's sit down and talk about what you're goals are
  • Let's use the example that someone has saved $80,000 and wants to aggressively find a house to rent for $1,000/month
  • Just because you can afford the house doesn't mean that you should buy it. Really consider the types of tenants you would have and the amount of work it takes to make the money
  • There might be other investments and properties where you could leverage the $80k, and find a $200k property with potentially better tenants and less headache for a similar return. Are you aggressive, are you conservative, what are your goals? Do you want to spend a LOT of time on tenants, do you want to use a management company.

    • What are some interesting real estate investments that someone might look to make their first deal?

    1. Look at something like Warehouse or Storage, where there aren't a lot of specifications on materials used on the build and the renters have a lot of flexibility in the use
  • Renters can use it to for shipping, freight, store front with storage, construction, etc

    • Some thoughts on being a Real Estate agent

    1.  High turnover in the profession: About 80% atrition rate in the first year of a real estate career
  • You must differentiate yourself. There are over 35,000 real agents in Houston
  • It’s a relationship business. 
  •  It's really easy to be "just a person" in the real estate agent world. So competitive and many others do the same thing that you do
  • The work schedule is NOT FLEXIBLE. 
  • You must have discipline to be successful
  • It’s the kind of job where you have to get out of your comfort zone EVERY DAY
  •  As a technical advisor at Schlumberger... she was very focused on customers... but this is a different story
  • Cold calling and starting conversations with people that you don't know is very different from her past customer experiences
  • Be ready to call people you've never met
  •  Be ready to go knock on stranger's doors
  • Be ready to be humble
  • Real Estate can have pay NO CEILING…if you hustle, work hard, do the right things, and build the right relationships - you can reach very high incomes!
  • Your image is very important

    • Time Management with Ana

    1. On Sunday she writes down what are my objectives for the week
  • Identifies what are the smaller activities that I need to do to achieve these objectives
  • prioritize family and "block" off time for family

    • On life & business

    Being an entrepreneur DOESN'T have to be your whole life

    Your job is a way to design your life. But it doesn't have to be your whole life.

    You can design your job around your life.

    If you're laid off. 

    1. Call people and ask if they will have a zoom call, a quick chat or coffee. 1 zoom or coffee each day. 
  • Look for opportunities from people that know you and trust you. Maybe consider your previous job.
  • LOOK FOR APPOINTMENTS EVERY DAY.
  • Start with your inner circle (people you know) and then move to the outer circle (FB / LInkedIN groups /. cold calls)
  • It's AMAZING how much information we give away for free in the social media groups (specifically)

    • What's something that people in oil and gas may not understand about Real Estate?

    1.  It's a numbers game… you must be patient and find the best deals possible. Don’t be emotional.
  • Accountability is very important. Look into a coach or mentor. Shadow folks that have been doing the work for a long time and work with them until you feel confident doing it on your own
  • Tracking numbers is very important. When people are wealthy... they might get lazy and NOT track your numbers.  "track your personal numbers" - look at your expenses weekly and monthly (mortgage, payments,  insurance, utilies, gas, gym, kids expenses). "track your business numbers"
  • I've been saying "Gain" a lot. But how much "pain" are you willing to go through to fix your situation.

    • Do you know  someone that would be a great interview for the podcast? Email [email protected]

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